Sexuality is very fluid and for the most part, there has been a societal shift towards a more “sex-positive” society. I digress because, as always, there is always a part of society that prefers to remain conservative. As a human female, basing my observations of other humans, it has dawned ...

What made a character be who he/she is? What is it that drives them, and why?

That's the allure of any origin story: we get to see how characters we look up to or love or love to hate came to be who they are.

Most, if not ...

Last week we talked about “writing what you know” … but how about ‘knowing what you write’? I knew I wanted to do this one as soon as I posted the previous article…just for the title.

In a TV show, series of books, movie, printed comic series, or newspaper strip ...

An ancient old woman shambles up to a even older tree that stands alone and isolated on a bare green hill. She makes a request of it, undergoes an intense magical ritual and examines the the detritus and trinkets she's collected over the course of her life… What is ...

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Fools are an iconic character trope and I wanted to explore them. They're a lot more varied and interesting than is readily apparent. There's a ...

We grin and support John Wick as he ploughs through dozens of people per minute in his revenge quest over his murdered dog and ruined car, but we gasp with shock when the Wicked Witch of the East pursues a single person to take revenge for killing her sister with ...

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Today on this glorious date we chat about that part in stories where everything turns to crap for the protagonists, just before the run up to the ...

There are the mustache-twirling villains, that enjoy being evil. They're deliciously fun!

Then there are the nutjob villains. Those that are basket cases one way or the other, psychopaths or antisocial, unfettered madmen with a logic of their own that wreaks havoc upon the world. They're also very ...

A key aspect to creating a strong story is having believable characters. They are, after all, a key backbone to your narrative. So here are three tips that can help you put together a well rounded character.

1. Create a backstory
If you’re naming a character then you got ...

I've talked many times about story structure. Even with a structural approach, there are a lot of questions to be answered, struggles to be had, and hard thinking to be done to make a story work.

One big moment that I like thinking about early in the writing is ...